Case Study

Inflect API

Inflect is a startup disrupting the internet infrastructure marketplace. Zek Interactive helped the Inflect team develop a backend and API that enabled them to launch their Minimum Viable Product on schedule.

Front-end

Interactive

Back-end

Dev-Ops

Inflect is currently in private beta.

About the Project

Few people really know the complex ecosystem at the core of the Internet and the relationships between the players that run the critical infrastructure. As it stands, information asymmetry plays a big role in preventing many companies from getting maximum value and cost-savings. Inflect was founded by a team of industry veterans whose goal is to create a marketplace that levels the playing field and makes purchasing more efficient. It will be a one-stop solution for network engineers and a source of new prospects for network providers, allowing them to find each other in a fraction of the time it currently takes. The project is in private beta.

The Challenge

Initially, the Inflect team collaborated with Visually and Zek Interactive to create a lightweight prototype. Once that was accomplished, the next major milestone was to achieve a minimum viable product that could be presented at trade shows and in executive meetings with partners. Zek Interactive worked with Inflect's VP of Engineering, Eric Silverman, and its front-end team to rapidly develop a robust back-end and API using an agile process. Continuous integration (CI) processes were also implemented. Subsequently, the project was handed to their in-house team with a comprehensive set of documentation.

An early prototype.

Supporting a rapidly changing frontend

By carefully planning each sprint, we were able to prioritize tasks such that the back-end development would be two steps ahead of the front-end team as much as possible. This meant that the front-end development was rarely waiting for the API changes they needed. We also designed the API so that the front-end made fewer requests, and structured the data in a way that needed minimal logic to parse on the front-end. By putting the front-end first, we were able to deploy a steady flow of fully functional new features every sprint.

Tracking down the source of a performance issue

Overcoming performance bottlenecks

During the course of development, the size and complexity of the data grew unevenly. As a result, some of the API endpoints became overloaded, which caused the response times to slow to a crawl. The front-end also lagged from performing too many operations. Keen to find a long-term solution, we discussed pagination, breaking one endpoint into many and restructuring the front-end design, among other ideas. By caching using Fastly (an excellent content delivery network) and redesigning parts of the front-end, we were able to keep response times fast. The tradeoff for implementing caching is having to handle cache invalidation, which can prove tricky in some situations. Using automated and manual tests, we were able to iron out the cache invalidation issues.

Results

By the end of the engagement, the team had a product ready to present to investors and potential partners. The back-end was accompanied by a comprehensive test suite, and together we had put in place a continuous integration workflow to ensure long-term high code quality. Because we had documented the Dev-Ops processes in detail, it was a breeze for the team to migrate their infrastructure to Amazon Web Services. The team was delighted with the results we had achieved.

Overall9.4/10

Delivery9.7/10

Responsiveness9/10

Would recommend9.7/10

Zek is a smart guy with a diligent work ethic. He has creative solutions to problems and is very easy to work with. I recommend him for any project that needs talent.

Eric Silverman

VP Engineering

Zek was a pleasure to work with. His expertise is such that he is able to understand your requests on the first explanation. He is able to deliver his work in a timely fashion, always within his initial estimation, which is something I haven't seen with other remote contractors.

Jason Barry

Front-end Engineer

Zek's work with Inflect was focused and thorough. He was unafraid to ask questions and to make sure his solutions were helping deliver a great product.